To prevent African swine fever, food waste pig farming will be banned from New Year's Day next year, but the hand luggage inspection system set up at airports and ports will continue to be implemented. The Ministry of Agriculture plans to audit domestic pig farms within a certain period of time if there are no cases of illegal use of food waste, and then develop a manual inspection mechanism to withdraw from the farm. Experts believe that even if no pig farms violate regulations, it is still necessary to set up manual inspection stations and oppose withdrawal.
Our country's first African swine fever epidemic broke out in Taichung last year. Although the epidemic was quickly extinguished and returned to the epidemic-free area recognized by the World Organization for Animal Health, pig trading stopped during the epidemic, and the subsequent fall in pig prices, the industry is estimated to have lost at least more than 10 billion yuan. In order to reduce the risk of the epidemic, the Ministry of Agriculture announced that this year will be the last year of the transition year for food waste pig farming. Kitchen waste pig farming will be banned from New Year's Day next year. Currently, 4 counties and cities have completely banned food waste pig farming in advance.
The outside world is concerned about whether the hand inspection stations set up by border units such as airports and ports will also be withdrawn. It is understood that the Ministry of Agriculture prefers that the hand inspection stations will not disappear with the food waste but continue to operate. Later, they will observe whether domestic pig farms fully comply with the "no food waste pig raising" regulations before discussing whether the hand inspection stations will be withdrawn. The hand inspection stations will continue to operate next year.
Lin Zhaonan, a professor at the Department of Veterinary Medicine at Pingtung University, believes that even if domestic pig farms do not use food waste illegally in the future, hand inspection stations should continue to exist and should never be withdrawn. He pointed out that the function of hand inspection stations is to reduce the risk of African swine fever virus invading the country, and the current hand inspection stations will still exist. Some passengers are still lucky enough to be fined heavily for illegally carrying meat from epidemic areas. If the hand inspection stations are withdrawn, such violations may continue to occur. Compared with the economic losses caused by the outbreak and the possibility of destroying the domestic pig industry chain with an output value of 100 billion, the existence of hand inspection stations is absolutely necessary.
This year is the last year of the transition to food waste pig farming. Pig farmers who can use food waste to raise pigs must install AIOT monitoring equipment, and the number of pigs they raise must be more than 199. Pig farms that use food waste to raise pigs in violation of regulations will be fined. Fu Xueli, deputy director of the Prevention and Inspection Department, pointed out that two national audits of small pig farms and high-risk pig farms have been carried out this year, and the second one is currently underway. After 3 inspections, as of the 22nd, 26 cases of illegal transportation or use of food waste by pig farms were still found, including 24 cases of pig farms without a food waste reuse permit, 19 cases of small pig farms with a breeding scale of less than 199 pigs, 5 cases of illegal pig farms with more than 200 pigs, and 2 cases of pig farms that can legally use food waste, and the cooking temperature did not meet the standard.
Fu Xueli said that in order to deter pig farms from violating the regulations, the penalty standards for illegal transportation and feeding pigs with food waste have been revised, from 200,000 yuan each for the first violation to 500,000 yuan. If a pig farm violates the rules, the total fine to be paid will be increased from the previous 400,000 yuan to 1 million yuan.
